I've seen that some people liek it but more people dislike it. Me? I don't really care. I really hope it isn't the average everyday battle music, because I'll get really really sick of it then. I'm talking sitting-in-sand'oria-for-hours sick of the music. It sounds to me like the background music for an action packed cutscene or something.

It may seem so alien to us because they might've told the sound team something like "Make it recognizable FF music, but also make sure that it's different from FFXI. We want to stress that this is a different game, including the music."

Our opinions of music are very psychology-centered. Although we tend to think of music as something you just listen to passively, the truth is that we are typically rather actively listening to music, processing it, internalizing, and memorizing it. Generally speaking, we like music that is at "our level" as listeners of music. Music that you'd find on the radio tends to not be very musically complex, because the average listener isn't able to wrap their heads around complex rhythms and intricate polyphony. So songs that are very popular are often very simple compositions that are well performed and have an immediate, though short-lived appeal. They use familiar, simple musical phrases, and usually repeat them a number of times. Often they only contain about a minute's worth of a simple composition for the listener to process, and this is why people will sooner than later memorize the entire song by heart and find that it doesn't "do it" for them anymore.

Compare this to the music on the site. It's a 7-minute score with some repetition, but there's a lot of original music in there. The music isn't a simple composition either (e.g., it doesn't have repetitive bass and drum parts, it doesn't ignore harmony and chords). It will take even people who listen to a good deal of complex music and have a good music education quite some time to fully process and appreciate. Conversely, I can turn on the radio and half the songs are so predictable and simple that I can memorize if not anticipate major parts of the composition during a single listen.

Music is also not really that subjective. Most of the subjectivity comes from the listener's psychology. Music composition is otherwise a very mathematical process that revolves around the frequencies at which pitches vibrate. So virtually any composition that follows these rules is going to be pretty "good" as far as music goes.

Now to the point-- for a 40 hour single player game, this score might not be so great, but for a game that you might play for hundreds of DAYS, you'll probably have plenty of time to develop an appreciation for the piece. Many of the songs I enjoy the most now I didn't even really like until after the tenth time I listened to them, because I was still processing them. You can be sure that Uematsu follows "the rules" in his composition and it's obviously got some complexity to it. So don't worry. If there is such a thing as bad music, rather than music you don't quite appreciate yet, Uematsu is probably not its author.

Never confuse your inference as the listener for an implication of the speaker.

Good games are subjective like good food is subjective. You're not going to seriously tell me that there's not a psychological basis for why pizza is great and lutefisk is revolting. The thing about subjectivity is that, as subjects go, humans actually have a great deal in common.

Totally agree on the December music. I would just have the website up in background while playing games and listen to it for hours. As for the new stuff it is alright, just your typical battle music. As long as I don't have to listen to grunts, groans and screams from everything you or a npc would do (as in Aion), I wouldn't mind it while fighting.

I downloaded an unofficial soundtrack of every song that has been displayed on the FFXIV website so far I really like each one. Even though its not FFXI, the music still invokes some FFXI memories. I think once most people are in game running around areas, the music will sound alot better. Each song is made for a specific purpose or zone and hearing it without "being" in the area it's supposed to be for, it might sound somewhat lacking.

I really dig the music from the original trailer. I'm a huge fan of the music, but I could do with out the synthesizer. Live versions are much more powerful than the ones you hear on the website. If only you could have a full orchestra playing in your living room while you explore Eorzea...

Anyway I don't want to hear all the best music and themes from the game before I've had a chance to experience them with the content anyway. The music of the FF series have always been on the high end of the list for me. I'm sure this game will be no different. You know Uematsu is stewing up something funky for us later anyway. Didn't you see him getting down at Vanafest?

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HaibaneRenmei wrote:

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cocodojo wrote:

Its personal preference and all, but yes we need to educate WoW players that this is OUR game, these are Characters and not Toons. Time to beat that into them one at a time.

I really dig the music from the original trailer. I'm a huge fan of the music, but I could do with out the synthesizer. Live versions are much more powerful than the ones you hear on the website. If only you could have a full orchestra playing in your living room while you explore Eorzea...

I downloaded that song and have been listening to it. Love it. I'm really excited for the music this time around. There were some areas in FFXI that I would just hang in to farm and fish just because I loved the music so much. Lufaise Meadows was one of those areas :)

I'm not liking it. I feel like I should be running around a space station under attack by unknown alien forces, desperately trying to reach the button that would save all of mankind as my comical sidekick Jeeves climbed through the vents for no reason whatsoever.

However, I loved the old music. I'd occasionally open the window in the background just to listen to it while doing other things.

Quote:

This one?

Yes. It, to me, had a lot of soul in it (not the genre). It made me feel like we were living in desperate times, but yearning for a prosperous future (and willing to fight for it).

I'm not liking it. I feel like I should be running around a space station under attack by unknown alien forces, desperately trying to reach the button that would save all of mankind as my comical sidekick Jeeves climbed through the vents for no reason whatsoever.

However, I loved the old music. I'd occasionally open the window in the background just to listen to it while doing other things.

Quote:

This one?

Yes. It, to me, had a lot of soul in it (not the genre). It made me feel like we were living in desperate times, but yearning for a prosperous future (and willing to fight for it).

As someone else said, VERY Final Fantasy.

I agree that the December music was awesome. I also think though that the new music suits a good FF battle theme very well. I like both; maybe the old theme a little more.

This new one kinda makes me think of Uematsu's work with the Black Mages.

This battle music is typical Nobuo. The man is talented and has composed some great stuff in the past, and though I think he's a tad overrated, I certainly don't think he's a bad musician. However, you can tell with this song that he's lacking in inspiration; it's the same feeling I got with his contributions to the FFX soundtrack (I'm sorry, but the Battle with Seymour sounds like what you get when you vomit all over a synthesizer). He still knows how to show off his skills, but you can tell he's just running out of juice.

You don't have to listen to this new FFXIV song for very long to notice that it's just completely random: one unchanging rhythm for the entire song, no patterns at all in the melody, and no particularly evocative or interesting notes that elicit any kind of emotion whatsoever. Maybe it's supposed to be that way, just some passive background music that doesn't jump out at you and say "listen to me!"; you have to figure we'll be listening to it regularly for several years. I won't pretend I'm not disappointed, but then, being a SaGa fan, I guess I'm biased when it comes to battle music.

One thing I've never liked about Nobuo is his choice of instrumentation. He prefers cheesey MIDI sounds over anything realistic, which really just grates my cheese. To be fair, Kenji Ito really needs to lay off the industrial pipe sample.

As long as they make sure to add in the main Final Fantasy theme, the crystal theme, and some remix of a chocobo theme, I will be happy. After that I trust them to come up with plenty of nice new music for the game.

My view is that everyone will have some music they like and others that they don't. The thing that's good is there will be a lot of different music to hear. I think no matter what though, SE will deliver some music that will stick in my head as much as ronfaure and certain party musics did.

whether the music is bad or not, it has to fit the visual aspect of the site.

with that being said, the previous track they had (December) fit a whole lot better with the background of the 3 individuals and the chocobo looking over a landscape, than this new combat-style track does. i also liked the initial track they had, before December.

what they should do is allow this combat music to play only when you're viewing certain sections of the site, such as the classes, their weapons and especially the bestiary. that is fitting.

then allow the gentle and mysterious music to play over other parts of the site such as story, city-states, races, etc.

this way, whether you like the music or not, it's at least fitting to the current content that one is reading.

Our opinions of music are very psychology-centered. Although we tend to think of music as something you just listen to passively, the truth is that we are typically rather actively listening to music, processing it, internalizing, and memorizing it. Generally speaking, we like music that is at "our level" as listeners of music. Music that you'd find on the radio tends to not be very musically complex, because the average listener isn't able to wrap their heads around complex rhythms and intricate polyphony. So songs that are very popular are often very simple compositions that are well performed and have an immediate, though short-lived appeal. They use familiar, simple musical phrases, and usually repeat them a number of times. Often they only contain about a minute's worth of a simple composition for the listener to process, and this is why people will sooner than later memorize the entire song by heart and find that it doesn't "do it" for them anymore.

Compare this to the music on the site. It's a 7-minute score with some repetition, but there's a lot of original music in there. The music isn't a simple composition either (e.g., it doesn't have repetitive bass and drum parts, it doesn't ignore harmony and chords). It will take even people who listen to a good deal of complex music and have a good music education quite some time to fully process and appreciate. Conversely, I can turn on the radio and half the songs are so predictable and simple that I can memorize if not anticipate major parts of the composition during a single listen.

Music is also not really that subjective. Most of the subjectivity comes from the listener's psychology. Music composition is otherwise a very mathematical process that revolves around the frequencies at which pitches vibrate. So virtually any composition that follows these rules is going to be pretty "good" as far as music goes.

Now to the point-- for a 40 hour single player game, this score might not be so great, but for a game that you might play for hundreds of DAYS, you'll probably have plenty of time to develop an appreciation for the piece. Many of the songs I enjoy the most now I didn't even really like until after the tenth time I listened to them, because I was still processing them. You can be sure that Uematsu follows "the rules" in his composition and it's obviously got some complexity to it. So don't worry. If there is such a thing as bad music, rather than music you don't quite appreciate yet, Uematsu is probably not its author.

Some interesting stuff, what you wrote about also had me thinking about the fact that this song will most likely appear as audio in the game during a battle in which case your focus is not going to be primarily on listening to the song, instead the song will sit as a piece in the background adding atmosphere to the current events.

Akira Yamaoka (Composer of Silent Hill fame) had an interesting talk at GDC this year about audio in games, I had the chance to attend. He talked a lot about composing music not only around setting the mood for events but also the psychology of the player, and what they will be fixed on or concentrating on during the playing of the piece. With the music in a town or an area you visit a lot and explore openly, a simple melody that's easier to quickly comprehend and memorize is probably favorable, but not in the case of a piece like this.

I actually enjoy this piece, I do have a taste for simple melodic music though, and I am sure that it will appear in FFXIV as well - It would not be an Uematsu soundtrack without those key "hummable" pieces.

I've liked the pieces they've put up thus far, especially the December music.

I'm just praying there's nothing remotely resembling the Ronfaure music in the game... it harkens me back to my noob (ie. brank new to the game) rdm days of FFXI and dying one too many times in a row to those stupid sheep using that stupid charge move EXACTLY as I'm about to cast a cure on myself. Even the opening bar of that track makes me twitch a little.

I'm just praying there's nothing remotely resembling the Ronfaure music in the game...

Not really a fan of it either, but it's certainly one of the more popular tracks. At least, it's the one that they default to in FF concerts when they have to acknowledge that there was a title called FFXI and that it had music.

Never really been a big Uematsu fan, but that isn't to say he hasn't made good songs now and then. I find it funny he considered IX his best work in the past, but I felt it the worst in the series in terms of memorability and engagement. One of my larger issues with him is his reliance on synthetic instruments, and it's something he's been using long since hardware has been able to support more orchestral or "living" sound.

Overall, I guess I prefer more ambient music in MMOs because they're things you're going to be hearing a lot while playing. Or in some cases, people just turn off game music and listen to MP3s. I know there are some tunes in XI I swapped out because they were too... obnoxious. San d'Oria, Windurst, and Whitegate's themes immediately spring to mind here. First for the synthetic bagpipe, second for the annoying percussion, and the third is just an overall trainwreck.

In terms of the current track on the site, it doesn't really bother me, but it hasn't won me over, either. Sometimes a song gets me when I can apply something visual to it, too. Anime OP/EDs do that a lot.

Never really been a big Uematsu fan, but that isn't to say he hasn't made good songs now and then. I find it funny he considered IX his best work in the past, but I felt it the worst in the series in terms of memorability and engagement.

Huh?! IX had a number of great memorable songs, and I find it just as good as VII (well actually a bit better than VII).

Never really been a big Uematsu fan, but that isn't to say he hasn't made good songs now and then. I find it funny he considered IX his best work in the past, but I felt it the worst in the series in terms of memorability and engagement. One of my larger issues with him is his reliance on synthetic instruments, and it's something he's been using long since hardware has been able to support more orchestral or "living" sound.

I think you're sort of answering your own question. IX had a great soundtrack precisely because he (mostly) used realistic instruments instead of early 90's MIDI synth. Many of the tracks were lighthearted for a change, Melodies of Life was actually tolerable compared to Eyes on Me, tracks like You're Not Alone! were emotionally moving, and there was just as much classic FF nostalgia in the music as the game itself. Dark Messenger was pretty hardcore, too. The use of recurring character themes was also different and I thought made the tracks more memorable. This all coming from someone who also isn't a big fan of Nobuo.

Whatever the case, being on the "Nobuo is good, but not the greatest composer in the history of ever" boat is just as tough as being on the "FFVII was good, but not the greatest RPG in the history of ever" boat. Of note, Nobuo worked on a good chunk of FFXI's pre-expansion music, which may explain why you're not a fan of the main cities (I'll admit though, Whitegate doesn't bother me nearly as much as Sandy and Windy).

Mezzura wrote:

I actually rather like the new song, its a lot more complex than the others.

There's beauty in simplicity, you know. Unfortunately, there's really nothing complex about this track. Listen to the melody, the chords, and how it all flows, and it becomes hard not to notice the lack of structure and patterns. Complex songs can be fantastic if enough thought is put into them, but I really don't think Nobuo did more than just improvise a tune in the shower here. That doesn't mean it won't sound good to some people, but those with more discerning ears will naturally find it lacking. I don't mean for that to sound elitist, it's just that Nobuo isn't really living up to the reputation his rabid fans have given him here. Anyway, you can argue that it's only one song, but as has been mentioned before, this is one song we're going to be hearing over and over and over for years.

The music really throws me off with the first bit. The beginning really makes my hair stand on end. It's loud and obnoxious. As the song progresses, it does smooth out a bit, and become something that could be tolerated, but overall, that first impact is like a slap to the senses, sort of jolting. I don't like that sensation tbh, and those first 3 or so notes really make me want to run to the mute button.

Also, Lets be honest, not all of Uematsu's music is awesome, but he hits those perfect points enough that I have to give him props for the amount of enjoyment he's brought to the FF franchise.

Also, I greatly disliked the first song, for the record. It was just way too.... Generic adventure. Kinda felt corney.

I think the first thing I did when I started playing XI was turn off the music. The only sound track I could identify for you if it were played to me is probably the Gustaberg music.

I dunno, I always had Winamp going in the background.

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Did you lose faith? Yes, I lost faith in the powers that be. But in doing so I came across the will to disagree. And I gave up. Yes, I gave up, and then I gave in. But I take responsibility for every single sin. ♪ ♫